Lithuania Announces Controversial Coalition Agreement with Antisemitic Party

Session of the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament)

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Merely two weeks after her electoral victory, Lithuania’s premier-designate Vilija Blinkevičiūtė finds herself at the center of her first international controversy. Her party (the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, or LSDP) won an uneasy victory in Lithuania’s October 27th elections. Together with her campaign team, Blinkevičiūtė led her party to a modest victory- winning 52 out of 141 seats in Lithuania’s parliament- the Seimas. This gave her a comfortable lead over her conservative rivals in the Homeland Movement- which only won 28 seats and was forced to end its eight-year stint in government over Lithuania. 

However, Blinkevičiūtė had a problem. Her party only won 52 seats. In order to become  (and stay) Lithuania’s Prime Minister, she needs to maintain the support of the majority of the Seimas- or at least 71 seats. This was somewhat expected, as coalitions (usually headed by either the LSDP or the Homeland Movement) have been the norm in Lithuania's 34-year-long period of democracy. Therefore, the LSDP had to choose between several different coalition partners, with varying levels of willingness and fluctuating numbers of demands. Given the fact that Lithuania’s parliament was so split among different parties, it was clear that the LSDP would need to pick.

This is where the controversy arises. The LSDP’s first pick for coalition partner was not very controversial- Saulius Skvernalis and his Union of Democrats For Lithuania (DSVL) party had worked with the LSDP in past coalitions. However, the second pick truly shocked the European community. For its second political partner, the LSDP chose the controversial Dawn of Nemunas party, led by longtime Seimas member and political pariah Remigijus Zemaitaitis.

Remigijus Zemaitaitis has a long record of making antisemitic remarks online. In a series of Facebook posts, he (among other deranged things) blamed Jewish people for working together with the Russians to oppress the Lithuanian people, quoted an antisemitic rhyme, and to cap it all off blamed Jewish people writ large for the demolition of a school in the West Bank. In response, Zemaitaitis was widely condemned by political parties from across the spectrum, stripped of his parliamentary immunity, forced to resign from parliament, and is still awaiting trial for hate speech. 

Following this blow, Zemaitaitis formed his own party (the aforementioned Dawn of Nemunas, named after Lithuania’s largest river), portrayed himself as a victim of cancel culture, and then went on to come in third after railing against both of Lithuania’s established parties using populist rhetoric. The party, and Zemaitaitis, have widely been condemned by Jewish groups from all over the world as antisemitic, and the LSDP and others have been urged not to work with them. 

What does this mean for Lithuania’s government?

The LSDP has, as of November 10th, has finalized a coalition agreement with the DSVL and the Dawn of Nemunas. This means that the party is almost certainly going to enter government, and this decision is unlikely to be reversed anytime soon. 

In theory, Lithuania’s president chooses the prime minister. However, in reality, the president needs to select the leader of the majority coalition in the Seimas- otherwise, the opposition could simply call a vote to remove the prime minister, and the president would be back to square one. 

This means that in order to buy the support of Dawn of Nemunas and prevent them from calling a no-confidence vote, the LSDP had to make some concessions. The primary one is that the Dawn of Nemunas party will get to pick three ministers in the cabinet- the ministers of justice, the environment, and agriculture. This means that Zemaitaitis and the Dawn of Nemunas party will have a large amount of influence in these areas as the government continues to introduce its policy agenda. 

This agreement highlights an interesting trend in Lithuanian politics- the decline of the LSDP’s old allies. For a long time, it looked like the Dawn of Nemunas party was not going to get into government at all social democratic leaders once referred to it as “hardly imaginable”. This may indicate that the Dawn of Nemunas was not the LSDP’s first choice. Theoretically, the LSDP could have chosen any one of three different parties to work with to form a coalition. 

In particular, many predicted that the LSDP would ally with one of its old coalition partners- the Lithuanian Farmers’ and Greens’ Union, or LVZS. The LVZS won eight seats, which was a massive decline for the party. That said, the LVZS could have combined its total with the LSDP and the DSVL to take the three parties across the finish line without needing the help of the Dawn of Nemunas. However, it was expressed in coalition talks that DSVL leader, Saulius Skvernalis, had made it clear that allying with the LVZS was a hard red line- possibly because his faction had split away from the LVZS prior to the election. 

This could also indicate disunity within the LSDP, with perhaps certain factions pushing an alliance with the Dawn of Nemunas stronger than others. 

Zemataitis and the Dawn of Nemunas won’t be entirely unrestricted, however. Lithuania has a semi-presidential system. This means that Lithuania's president plays an active role in Lithuania’s government, and is not a ceremonial figurehead. Lithuania’s current president, Gitanas Nauseda, has openly stated that he is against Zemaitaitis personally serving in the cabinet. Additionally, any legislation will have to pass through Nauseda in order to become law- restraining some of the more ridiculous tendencies of Zemaitaitis. Nauseda has also told leaders in the LSDP that he won’t sign off on any members of the Dawn of Nemunas directly joining the cabinet. He did say he would sign off on nonpartisan experts nominated by the Dawn of Nemunas but would refuse to nominate any members of the party directly. This is critical because technically speaking, Nauseda needs to sign off on the Prime Minister as well as all cabinet ministers. 

Above all, this does show that antisemitism still very much exists in Lithuanian society. Historically speaking, Lithuania has a troubled and painful history with antisemitism. During the Second World War, thousands of Jewish people were murdered by Nazi Germany during its occupation of Lithuania as part of the Holocaust, often aided by local Lithuanian nationalists. To this day, many Lithuanian politicians sidestep the topic of Lithuania’s role in the Holocaust, and it very much remains a taboo subject. The fact that a politician such as Zemataitis has been able to come back from those remarks in the way that he did not only highlights that antisemitism is still present in Lithuanian society, but that there is also widespread indifference to antisemitism also present. 

What has been the reaction from the international community?

The international community has reacted harshly to the inclusion of the Dawn of Nemunas in government. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Benjamin Cardin, condemned the decision, calling it a “physical threat to the safety of Jewish and minority communities”, as well as a “betrayal of shared democratic ideals”. 

Criticism also came from Germany, where the Chair of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael Roth of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, stated that an alliance with the Dawn of Nemunas was “incompatible with [Germany’s] values”. Israel has also spoken up, with prominent Likud member and former speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, remarking that he views “with great concern” the rise of the Dawn of Nemunas party to political prominence. 

In the long term, however, this is unlikely to change Lithuania’s geopolitical orientation. The coalition deal states that the coalition will remain resolutely in favor of the nation’s membership in the EU and NATO, and will continue to support Ukraine. However, it is yet to be seen whether or not Germany (which takes reports of antisemitism very seriously) will honor its previous agreement with Lithuania to build a military base on Lithuanian soil to ward off Russian aggression. 

Lithuania insists that it is willing to explain its decision to ally with the Dawn of Nemunas to its allies. As Gintautas Paluckas, a leader of the LSDP explained, he sees this as the only path to forming a stable coalition that can endure the coming years, and that the LSDP does not see the whole Dawn of Nemunas party as antisemitic. Zemaitaitis has also attempted to explain his previous remarks in an open letter to the ambassadors of EU and NATO countries, as well as to Israel. In the same letter, Zemataitis also explained that he allegedly met with Jewish campaign leaders on the campaign trail in an attempt to mend fences with the Lithuanian Jewish community. Whether or not this haphazard explanation will satiate Lithuania’s Jewish community (which has also made its dismay very clear on this issue through a number of civil society organizations), or the broader EU and NATO communities, remains to be seen.